Robert Moncrief, Santa Monica's manager of housing and redevelopment, took the Daily press to task in his letter to the editor, Friday, May 23. Moncrief indicated that Daily Press editor, Carolyn Sackariason, did not have “any evidence that recent shootings (in the Pico neighborhood) have anything to do with residents of publicly funded low income housing in the area.”
Moncrief chides Sackariason for her “irresponsible journalism” and accuses her of “personal bias against low income people who live in publicly funded housing.”
I'm sure that Mr. Moncrief will not be pleased to learn that two of the four alleged shooters arrested by Santa Monica Police on Thursday night and Friday were residents of Community Corp. of Santa Monica.
Since the May 1, 1998 grand opening of my new building, I have been a tenant in a low-income CCSM building. I’ve seen for myself the criminal and anti-social behavior perpetrated by some of my fellow tenants and their visitors. Since 1998, the Santa Monica Police Department has compiled several hundred type pages of crime incidents. Most of the crimes have gone unreported by the owner and by the tenants. The SWAT team has been at my building a couple of times. Mr. Moncrief, CCSM and the City Council refuses to admit that the official HUD Crossfire Report which says massive criminal activity comes with residents of publicly funded low income housing.
Repeated complaints to Moncrief’s office and CCSM executive director, Joan Ling, have either been ignored or refuted. Mr. Moncrief’s and Ling’s head-in-the-sand attitude toward the criminal activity that occurs in and around many of the city’s low income projects does nothing to make them safer and further endangers tenant and neighbor alike.
It’s why I suggested that CCSM do criminal background checks on prospective tenants as part of the tenant evaluation process. A suggestion that has been dismissed by those in charge as “unnecessary and cumbersome.”
Mr. Moncrief owes Ms. Sackariason and the fine editors at the Daily Press an apology.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 27, 2003. Read the original PDF.